Have you ever made 3d terrain to play on?
 

My original introduction to The Fantasy Trip was actually through Heroscape. Anyone remember that game? The best part of it was the terrain. It came with plastic hexagon terrain that you could connect and stack to make your battlefields. Very cool. I was on the fan Heroscape forums, and there was this guy who posted his flocked terrain. Originally he bought the game for the terrain to use with TFT, but then started playing the actual game. His site is here at meleewizards.com.

Anyway, I sold most of my Heroscape stuff long ago. I'm not sure I want to buy back any of it, as it would be expensive. Instead I was thinking of trying to make my own. What I was thinking of buying up some MDF hexes pretty cheap. Then I could glue them to a board and texture it. The only problem with that is I couldn't change the layout too much. Sure I can make terrain that could lay on top, but it would be weird to put a river in the middle or something.

Has anyone else tried making some 3d terrain for the game?

Re: Have you ever made 3d terrain to play on?
 

I just use my Heroscape stuff. I think there was a Kickstarter for something compatible but can remember the name.

Re: Have you ever made 3d terrain to play on?
 

Hyground is what you're probably thinking of. I think they are coming back with a new Kickstarter, since the last one didn't succeed.

Re: Have you ever made 3d terrain to play on?
 

Yes that was the thing. It looked very nice.

Re: Have you ever made 3d terrain to play on?
 

I've been 3d printing game terrain for a little while now; you'll find a few designs here, for example. There's a wealth of printable terrain out there (look, for example, for "OpenForge"), but it's mostly based on square grids, so I have to do my own floor designs. Since I work primarily with GURPS, my designs use 1-inch hexes, but that's trivial to scale to any desired size.

Re: Have you ever made 3d terrain to play on?
 

the meleewizard web site playing surfaces were really cool; I haven't seen those for a while but remember them well. Notice that he used heroscape terrain as a base, meaning a 1.75" hex size. I suspect that all the sturm und drang about 1.5" hexes is really about the desire to shift the physical components of the game to a scale where there is at least the possibility of this kind of elaborate table top play surfaces. If so, I strongly advocate it; I enjoy my flat cardboard chits but the game will grow faster and in more exciting ways if it can tap into the miniatures skirmish game materials and community. TFT is such a natural for that, as it is both a very fast playing, fun skirmish combat engine and a roleplaying game. If it were my business to revive it, I would definitely try to pivot into a place in the market where the game play is like it always was (plus or minus some spell or talent you think would be cool), but the materials of the game evolve into something more ambitious.

Re: Have you ever made 3d terrain to play on?
 

Heroscape terrain was fantastic, and isn't that expensive to buy large lots of on EBay, if you'd like to have a table full of it.

...

Back when I was a teenager and wanted to get serious about WH40k, I tried making some terrain out of papier mache. It came out pretty bad. Maybe I would have gotten better with practice.

Re: Have you ever made 3d terrain to play on?
 

Yeah, I was going to recommend meleewizards too -- his stuff was amazing!

I used layers of corrugated cardboard built up one layer at a time in the shape I wanted. You can build a heck of a sailing ship (complete with gunports and stuff) for example, by doing it that way, but it requires some patience and more glue than most such projects. On the other hand, it lasts forever! ;-)

Re: Have you ever made 3d terrain to play on?
 

Oh, nice!

It occurs to me that an even marginally crafty person could probably figure out how to make a mold of the heroscape hexes, and cast such a contour to use as the deck surface of such a ship.

That person is not me, though.

Re: Have you ever made 3d terrain to play on?
 

If there had been such a thing as heroscape (remember, I was doing this back in the '70's), I'd have been all over that! Heck, if I'd had the room and time, I would have simply pasted a copy of a melee map over the deck and cabin roof, just like the one in that Spacegamer article, but by 1978 I was an infantryman in the Big Red One in Kansas and living out of a footlocker in the barracks. I don't think my Platoon Sergeant would have appreciated the artistry involved! ;-)

Re: Have you ever made 3d terrain to play on?
 

Hexes could be created individually (if you have a better than average toolkit, or a laser cutter) or bought in bulk online - here's one seller for MDF 1.5" hexes very cheap.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/6133382...CABEgJsdfD_BwE

Argh, what a URL!

Anyway, those are MDF, so seal 'em first, but then they can be painted as you wish, and textured with Woodlands Scenics or similar model RR products.

Re: Have you ever made 3d terrain to play on?
 

What a product! Man, you gotta love Etsy! ;-)

Re: Have you ever made 3d terrain to play on?
 

I made a river barge for my group playing Tollenkar's Lair. Yes, I know there is not a river barge in TL, but they haven't actually gotten to the written adventure yet.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...6&l=1d998215b3

Re: Have you ever made 3d terrain to play on?
 

Looks like HyGround's new kickstarter has started. Good timing -- coincidence?

Re: Have you ever made 3d terrain to play on?
 

Holy-smoke! It's like Lego for TFT!

JK

Re: Have you ever made 3d terrain to play on?
 

Those are really nice -- plus I love how they interlock with the Heroscape tiles. Were I still in Highschool, I'd so be there, but alas, my living space is so constrained now. I guess I'll just have to drool over all the pictures I hope you all will be posting on the web of your cool set-ups in the future!

Re: Have you ever made 3d terrain to play on?
 

Have I made terrain for ITL in the past? No.

Will I be doing so for the new edition? Yes.

MDF and foam core are your friends.

Re: Have you ever made 3d terrain to play on?
 

I originally bought HEROSCAPE for the hexes to use with TFT. - Then found that I liked the game, as it was, and so did my sons - so it ended up just being used for HEROSCAPE.

Heroscape?
 

Back in 2006, Bluekitsune 13 wrote a short TFT suggestion on the Heroscape website.

https://www.heroscapers.com/communit...ead.php?t=7132

Ignore the disabled link in the article.

Re: Have you ever made 3d terrain to play on?
 

I did old school back in the 1980s I made a sandbox board 6'x4'. I actually put dirt in it.

Molded hills, roads, rivers.

Had HO trees and props, 15mm buildings.

Did a hexless grid: 1 inch = 1 hex.

With all that space a player could really utilize the terrain.

Great for goblins on wolves or cavalry charges too.

Could set up wilderness, crossroads inns or a city using this space.

Some powerful playing went on.